Pretend to Be Royal by (Virtually) Exploring Versailles
Itching to travel but can't leave home? Explorers rejoice, as many famed destinations are now available to tour online. From the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to the Alaskan glaciers to the streets of Buenos Aires, organizations like the New England Aquarium and the National Parks have created dazzling online experiences, making it feel (almost) as though you are actually there. So try out these virtual tours from the comfort of your own home, and then maybe tour a museum and read a good book. Nowadays, staying home doesn't have to come without culture.
Take A Hike
Have you always wanted to visit the National Parks? Now's your chance to do so, virtually. Google partnered with the National Parks Service to create breathtaking 360° tours of terrains ranging from Hawaii's active volcanos to Utah's canyons. The tours are interactive and accompanied by narration from park rangers, perfect for kids and adults alike.
Google also offers virtual tours of international natural monuments. Scale Japan's Mt. Fuji from your living room and take a journey through Gombe, Tanzania, exploring Jane Goodall's famed chimpanzee reserve. There, you can even follow a day in the life of a chimpanzee, tracing a female chimp named Glitter through the Gombe forests.
Finally, through the Nature Conservancy, you can stroll through Oklahoma's landscapes. Relax as you're transported through vast, open fields, plains, and prairies. The interactive site also offers more information on certain aspects of the landscape, so you can learn while you tour.
Dive Deep
If you miss the ocean, but can't get there at the moment, satisfy your cravings with a virtual dive. The Natural Marine Sanctuaries offer immersive diving experiences for a variety of underwater locales, including American Samoa and the Florida Keys. There, you can see sea lions swimming through kelp, massive coral reefs, and much more.
For some real-time excitement, the New England Aquarium is broadcasting live presentations on Facebook every day at 11a.m. EST. Their site also has many prerecorded videos to browse, from penguin feeding to at-home projects for families.
Once again, Google has your online nature covered with their sea tours. With Google Earth, you can use Street View underwater, through imagery provided by Underwater Earth and the Ocean Agency.
Meet Some Furry Friends
Many zoos now offer live streams of their animals, so you can feel as though you are right there with these exotic critters. The San Diego Zoo and the Smithsonian National Zoo both offer this feature on their websites. So spend your day with some penguins, giraffes, or lions—you won't regret it.
Walk A City's Streets
Google is back at it again with the immersive virtual experiences. With the site's Street Art Tours, you can walk through cities ranging from Buenos Aires to New York to Amsterdam and explore the city's street art and graffiti. The collection also includes audio tours and artist stories so you can engage with the art as you (virtually) stroll.
Tour A Castle
Go full throttle on the escapism and pretend to be royal by virtually exploring a palace. Whether you want to wander Buckingham Palace or see the beauty of Versailles, many castles around the world now offer extensive and interactive online tours.
Into the British royals? You can now take an inside look at many of the Royal Family homes including Windsor Castle, The Palace of Holyroodhouse (the Queen's official Scottish residence), and, of course, Buckingham Palace. If you want a more global royal approach, take a look at these virtual tours of iconic palaces worldwide.
See the Vatican
Few spaces are as breathtaking as the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican as a whole. Now, you can experience all of it from the comfort of your own home with the Vatican's virtual tours. On the site, you can take a 360° look at the Vatican's most popular sites, including the New Wing, Raphael's Rooms, and, of course, the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's masterpiece is something to be enjoyed slowly and carefully, as the chapel's complex art reveals more the longer you look.
Looking for more? On YouTube, you can watch a livestream of the Vatican, which includes the Pope's daily mass. Indeed, if you're craving a trip to Italy, you can satisfying some of your wanderlust virtually.
Explore the Catacombs of Paris
In the mood for something a little spookier? Tour Paris's famed Catacombs, virtually. The Catacombs of Paris is an underground quarry home to the skeletal remains of over six million 18th-century Parisians. While lines for the actual site can be remarkably long, you can now visit the historic landmark online, without the wait time or the airfare.
On the Catacombs' website, you can take a 360° look at five different portions of the famed ossuaries. This, of course, includes the Alc?ve de l'Ossuaire, perhaps what many people envision when they think of the Catacombs. This portion of the tour showcases the skull and bone-lined walls of the tunnels, and allows you to zoom in for striking detail. You can also virtually view the Atelier, Galerie de Port-Mahon, Cloche de Fontis, and Lampe Sepulcrale de l'Ossuaire (another skull-filled maze).
So save yourself a trip, and see part of the Catacombs' 200 miles of underground tunnels. This interactive journey will be sure to please history buffs and Francophiles alike.
Visit A Museum
A wide variety of museums have collections and tours online. Google Arts & Culture has the largest assortment of offerings, ranging from London's National Gallery to Los Angeles's Getty Museum to Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum.
Independently, some museum websites have their own digital resources and interactive features. Paris's Louvre museum and New York's Guggenheim both have extensive offerings online, including touring their iconic buildings and accessing artist profiles and interviews. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art both have art commentary on their websites. The Met's Artist Project, where famous artists discuss their favorite parts of the museum's collection, and MoMA's YouTube channel are great places to start if you're looking for an arts fix.
For a more complete list of cultural institutions with notable online resources, take a look here.
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